From the recording The Sentinel
Lyrics
[Intro]
[whispered vocals]
I woke up to the taste of iron
Not mine
His shadow on my chest
Breathing like a broken bell
[Verse 1]
He stands at the edge of the trench
Mud to his knees
Teeth red
Eyes calm
Like he’s seen this film already
He turns his head
Just enough so I hear him smile
"I'll walk first
" he says
"Let it meet me before it meets you"
Crow screams over the hill
Child’s laugh
Wrong place
Wrong time
Somebody’s prayer gets cut in half
Drums start in my ribs
Not the ground
[Chorus]
My sentinel draws first blood for me
Hands to the dark
Says
"Come take a piece you can’t keep"
This is a war he cannot win
He knows
Still he wades in
Waist-deep in ghosts
Breaking the night with his bones
My sentinel draws first blood for me
Takes the wound
Wears my name in it
[Verse 2]
He walks like a verdict
Passed down long before my birth
Every step
A sentence
Every breath
A bargain I never signed
Cello moans low behind us
Like the earth learning to grieve
Something laughs in the smoke
Something counts
One
Two
Three
He lifts his arms
Painted in other people’s endings
Tribal rhythm in his veins
Thud
Thud
Thud
He answers the sky with his body
[Pre-Chorus]
I want to drag him back
Nails in his armor
Voice in the dust
But the ground holds him
Like it knows his true address
[Chorus]
My sentinel draws first blood for me
Hands to the dark
Says
"Come take a piece you can’t keep"
This is a war he cannot win
He knows
Still he wades in
Waist-deep in ghosts
Breaking the night with his bones
My sentinel draws first blood for me
Takes the wound
Wears my name in it
[Bridge]
[low vocal register]
He leans into the blade
Like it’s old family
Like it’s Sunday dinner
Like he’s late
Blood on his tongue
He whispers my history back at me
Every fear I buried
Spoken in a stranger’s voice
The ground laughs now
High
Hysterical
Distant
Children clapping where I can’t see
While he becomes the lesson
[Chorus]
My sentinel draws first blood for me
Hands to the dark
Says
"Come take a piece you can’t keep"
[Outro]
[spoken
Almost breathless]
He falls on purpose
Slow
Theatrical
Defiant
So I can watch what mercy costs
The war walks past him
Doesn’t even look down
Finds my face in the smoke
And hesitates
Somewhere in the din
His last breath
Crawls into my lungs
And refuses to leave